FORUM: Now's the time for E-Verify

This could well be said of the United States government's
E-Verify program.

Arizona's SB 1070 has shown that a large number of people,
especially in the border states, are fed up with the federal
government's failure to secure our border. But what draws
immigrants over the border? Mostly, it is jobs.

E-Verify is a virtual fence that keeps illegal immigrant job
seekers from becoming employed. No jobs and illegal immigrants go
home, or don't come in the first place. What could be simpler?

The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act explicitly
prohibited unauthorized persons from working in the United States
and established a paper system (the I-9 form) to verify legitimate
work status.

Obviously, it hasn't worked. Illegal immigrants submit phony
documents to circumvent the system and it can take years to uncover
the fraud, while they steal American jobs until they are discovered
(if ever). E-Verify does the same thing, usually within seconds.
The problem with the E-Verify system is that Congress did not make
it mandatory.

According to my congressman, Darrell Issa, Republicans are for
E-Verify but the best they were able to accomplish was a voluntary
program. He likened it to getting the nose of the camel in the
tent.

Some states have made E-Verify mandatory: Arizona, Mississippi,
South Carolina and Utah. President George W. Bush issued an
executive order that also requires federal contractors to use
E-Verify. But Congress has failed to act.

I have been told by a local assemblyman that the Democrats in
the California Assembly will not vote for mandatory E-Verify
usage.

So if the U.S. president will not secure the border, and if the
Democratic majority at both the federal and state level will not
institute E-Verify, what can citizens do?

Fortunately, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the
right of the states and cities to require mandatory usage of
E-Verify. The case is Chicanos Por La Causa v. Napolitano
(http://www.mcaodocuments.com/general_pdf/20090309-9thCircuit.pdf).

At this point, the Southern California cities of Lancaster,
Menifee and Lake Elsinore have all passed city ordinances requiring
the use of E-Verify via their city councils. Freemont, Neb.,
recently passed an ordinance via voter initiative to require the
same thing. The city of Temecula will be taking it up soon,
according to a local newspaper article. The Red Bluff Tea Party has
voted to take the matter up with its city council.

Fed-up Americans are beginning to take their country back, one
city at a time. It's about time.